It's official - Gas is now more expensive than Water.
Kind of makes sense though because gas is a 100000 times more scarce than water. Luckily I don't have to drive around very often, but gas prices and gas shortages is going to become a huge problem.
How much does your electricity cost?
I am guessing a gas powered performance car would get about 20mpg?
Let's figure 25mpg.
So to travel 1000 miles would cost 40 gallons of gasoline. Say gas in your area is $2.50, that is $100.
If your electricity costs 10 cents/Kwh, and the vehicle goes 4miles/kwh (which is about what the Roadster gets), it would cost you $25 dollars to go 1000 miles.
So, about 75% cheaper with the numbers listed above.
From what I've read on the subject, the reason prices are getting higher and higher is because China is starting to use a TON more oil now that they're becoming more of an economic powerhouse. With a static supply of oil, this increased demand raises the price of oil in a global economy. The reason prices were as low as they were in the 90s (anybody else remember $1/gal?) is because there were fewer industrialized countries. Now that other countries are beginning to get their feet wet in the global economy, the demand for things like oil are going to go up, driving up prices.
And really, gas isn't that expensive of a commodity. Think about how much it would cost to fill your tank if cars ran on Starbucks coffee. A large coffee at Starbucks is 20 fluid ounces. That puts a gallon at 6.4 venti-sized cups. The price of a venti coffee will vary from place to place but let's say for argument's sake that it costs $5. That puts a gallon of coffee at $32. My small car has a tank that carries about 12 gallons. Filling that tank would cost $384. Dear lord. Be thankful you're only paying $50 to fill the tank.
This is also ignoring that on the individual level, the demand for gas is pretty much vertical. What that means is that more or less regardless of the price, you're going to buy gas, because you need it. The classic example of a vertical demand curve is the demand for Insulin. A diabetic person will not stop buying insulin at all, regardless of cost, because if they do, they die. The demand for gas isn't quite that bad because there are alternative methods of transportation, but for the majority of people, they need gas to drive to work and they don't have any other way of getting there. Gas companies could really charge whatever they wanted and they'd still sell gas.
Economically, gas should be incredibly expensive, but it isn't because of the controls put in place by large economic political organizations.
The price of oil as a commodity is one thing. The number and locations of -working- refineries to process the oil is another, and greatly affects the price of oil. Also, prices are regionally dependent: for instance, the Canadian government puts taxpayer oil, not to mention distributors get a small proportion of the money as well. In the states, there is far less emphasis on gasoline taxation - so Chaz is right in that you guys in the US should be thankful you're paying far less for oil than in many other nations (Arab countries excluded ).
Eastern Canada gets its oil from the North Sea drilling outlets off of Britain instead of our own oil in Canada because of a lack of an efficient medium for transportation (no pipeline from Alberta oils to the East), and a lack of nearby refineries. If we could somehow become more self-sufficient in our oil production, I'm sure costs at the gas station will be lower. However, the government has felt it is better to build a pipeline that transects the Canada and US.
The refineries we rely on are in the states and as I said, several of those are closing down for extended maintenance, sharply raising the price of gasoline in Canada at least.
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